Monday, April 29, 2013

Cheyenne Mountain 50k

64.

Alarm at 3am.You
decided to get up a half hour earlier than you needed to, to do some
exercises.You’ve been reading more and
more about fighters doing REALLY hard workouts a few hours b/f their
fight.Then they have time to recover
and when they get into the cage, they are not redlining for the first time that
day.When the heart rate jacks up, they
are more comfortable w/ it.So you go
outside on the sidewalk at 3 am and do a hundred down and ups.You break a sweat, heart rate goes up really
high.People are out walking home from
various parties.You pack up the truck
and make the 90 min drive w/ JMP.She is
running the 25k.Her farthest distance
race.You are excited as you always are
on race morning.No caffeine.

You get there early enough to take a snooze and walk Roxy
and warm up.You start just behind the
lead pack, as always.You all run up a
big climb right from go.It’s not long
b/f you can’t see the leaders.Alex
Nichols was on the start line and he came in 2nd at the Pikes Peak marathon right after Killian Jornet.There’s serious talent at today’s race.

You fall into your own pace and chat w/ a few folks.You hold back and try and conserve
energy.The mountains down here in Cheyenne Mountain State Park
and dry.Really dry.The temperature is warm right from the start.
You drink as much as you can w/ only one
water bottle.The course is broken up
into four different loops.Well, two
loops repeated twice for the 50k-ers.You enjoy the course, end up running by yourself for a while.When you are ¾ of the way done, you see JMP,
done w/ her race, walking Roxy.You yell
and wave and she yells back and cheers for you.It fills you w/ excitement and makes the day seem so much more sweet.You have so much to be thankful for.Four months ago, you weren’t able to run at
all.But being fired up only lasts so
long w/ 21 miles on your legs and the day just getting hotter and hotter.The last ten miles take forever.You’re hiking more than you’d like to
admit.You run out of water w/ 5 miles
to the next aid station.When you
finally get there you drink down 3 cokes, 1 heed and a bottle of water.You fill up your bottle and head down for the
last 3 miles home.It’s downhill.It hurts.The quads are blown up.But you
did it.You can see the finish line.It sends a surge through you and you pick
your pace up for the last mile.Over
4,000 ft of elevation gain.When you
cross the finish line, you put your hands up and your head down.Your first 50k of the year.Longest distance so far this year.And all just a warm up for next weekend.In exactly one week, you’ll still have
another 20 miles to go after the 50k mark.Collegiate Peaks 50 miler.Why
you signed up for two big races on back to back weekends, you’ll never know…